Buy black to support black-owned businesses is important message at King celebration Community luncheon

Maggie Anderson was the keynote speaker Tuesday at the Community Luncheon for the 46th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City.
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Maggie Anderson brought hundreds of people to their feet, applauding Tuesday with her buy black message at the Community Luncheon during the 46th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration.

Anderson, the author of “Our Black Year” explained to the audience at the Sheraton Crown Center that she with her family devoted a year to supporting black owned businesses and the black community. She praised businesses like Gates Bar-B-Q for the wealth and jobs that it brings to the black community in Kansas City.

She also explained that it has been disheartening to see so many African American businesses go under after only existing a short time. Anderson encouraged the mostly black audience to invest in black banks and black businesses.

It’s not a separatist notion but an American ideal. Anderson said King’s message included such economic empowerment.

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“It’s great to come to the luncheon today, but where are we going to bank tomorrow?” Anderson asked. She named multinational corporations that produce black beauty and hair care products and liquor in which young African Americans are the primary consumers. The corporations benefit from black consumers, yet few invest wholeheartedly in the black community.

She said she continues to push people to invest in black business: “I’m going to go out of here fighting. Are you?”